“Claire and her team have been integral to improving the quality of our sustainability communications. Experienced, thoughtful communicators and talented writers, they were able to couple technical reporting with an accessible tone that effectively catered to our diverse audience. In addition to writing, they have always been excellent consulting partners throughout the reporting process – from report structure and compliance to data gathering to online and print design.”

Annual report

Like many large companies, Diageo is evolving towards integrated reporting, combining Sustainability & Responsibility reporting with the Annual Report. Following on from our work on Diageo’s Sustainability & Responsibility Reports between 2011 and 2014, Diageo asked us to help them with the launch of the first integrated report in 2014, providing editorial support and giving guidance on content structure and tone. In 2015, we were asked to provide a more comprehensive consulting and advisory service, working internally with the integrated reporting team as the champions for sustainability and responsibility, while taking an overall editorial view of the strategic report, a role we continue to play.

Sourcing for Growth report

Diageo is finding new ways to measure the impact of the many community programmes they run around the world, with the aim of objectively checking their effectiveness and being able to share stories of progress. In early 2017, they came to us for help in turning a 2016 impact study of their Study for Growth (S4G) programme in Ethiopia into an engaging summary document. Our starting point was a detailed 40-page report by researchers at the Bath Social & Development Research group, which we turned into a beautifully designed 11-page summary document. Just four months after our document was published, the S4G programme was awarded a New Vision for Development award by the Word Economic Forum.

Code of Business Conduct

In 2015 we were asked to help Diageo revise its Code of Business Conduct to reflect the company’s significant growth and its difference as a workplace compared with 2009, when the Code was launched. This required producing a high quality, succinct and accessible document that could be translated into more than 20 languages. But more than that, we had to ensure that Code could become a clear guide for employees making ethical decisions on behalf of Diageo.

“Alcohol in Society”

Diageo contracted us in 2015 to write a new brochure and a consistent set of policy statements, setting out the company’s position on various issues around alcohol in society for both internal and external global audiences. Central to the task was creating a framework for non-specialists to understand complex policy issues and expressing those issues in clear language that would enlighten employees. Since then, we worked regularly with the AIS team on a variety of communications.